The MacArthur Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health is a multi-disciplinary collaboration comprising leading scholars from the fields of psychology, sociology, psychoneuroimmunology, medicine, epidemiology, neuroscience, biostatistics, and economics who have been working together for the last decade. The network research agenda is organized around an integrated conceptual model of the environmental and psychosocial pathways by which socioeconomic status alters the performance of biological systems, thereby affecting disease risk, disease progression, and ultimately mortality.

The network has enhanced understanding of the mechanisms by which socioeconomic factors affect the health of individuals and their communities through the development of innovative research methods, creation of significant new data sets, novel findings, and identification of new concepts, hypotheses and directions for research. Building on this work the network has contributed to discussions of economic and social policy to foster better health among individuals and communities across the socioeconomic spectrum.